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Friday, 'November 7, 1958
JEWISH WESTERN BULLETIN
Page Seven
IN ISRAEL
. BY PIERRE VERNIER
This article is devoted to o recent study by M. Avidor, Director-General of the Israeli Ministry of Education, which wos published in UNESCO's ^ 'EducoHon Abstracts'; ' ' * ,
FEW countries have had to face science; the Israel Institute of JTech-educational problems of nology in Haifa which concentrates on/ such vast proportion as those that engineering a/id the Weizman Institute
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All right. Go speak to your ma . ./^ BUT if I I catch you ddvehing:... \" |
'_ , " ■ ' . ' «- . Crf ■'1916. Uonotd P/itiliin g
When did you read a Jewish
By EDWIN WOLFE, 2n«l
President, Jewish Publication Society of America ^ Mr.. Wolfe presents herie some appropriate thoughts oi) Jewish Book Month. Con we soy that they are just as pertinent for Bulletin Waders OS they are for Jews in United States and other ports of Canada?
HEN I was in grammar "I read for a couple of houris," is un-school I used to wake up usual. There's no reason why it should
W
at six o'clock in the morning and finish one of the Tom Swift books before breakfast. A rainy afternoon would do for a Tarzan. We went down to Leary's and bought "series" by the doz^n in good / second-hand condition. I mu?t have,averaged nearly ten volumes a week of this not-so-difficult 'adolescent fare. When I was a little older I started in on Dumas. The Three Musketeers was just a beginning; I went right on through the forty-odd volumes of > the collected works I got as a Mitzvah present. Books were considered the Bar Mitzvah present in those days.
The books I read now can't be read jis fast, but I've never stopped reading for pleasure. I don't understand why • what I have always, looked on as pure , enjoyment others qohsider work. Perhaps, it's just'habit, l)ut I like to think it's curiosity. When the new volumes caine-of Salo Baron's monumental Social and ReUglons History of Jews«dealing with the High Middle Ages, I glanced at them (this is wljat's called riffling) and reialized that I knew little or nothing al5out this exciting period of Jewish history. Without the conscious thought that I^ really must .read this, I began one volume, finished it, and went right on to the next /
It's hard for me'to accept the idea that I'm "diifferent." I'm curious about something and then; I get ,to reading aboiit it. Most people are curious^ in-V tejlectually curious, even those who habitually depreciate their own minds. We've gotten into the habit of laughing off culture and playing canasta. "JEgghead" appeared in our national vocabulary as a term of scorn. Men and women—although, honestly, less women tiban men—are embarrassed in a country club set or lodge meeting or evening with the neighbors to let on that they might have deep thoughts or an urge for learning. The great placebo is to go to a book review once every two weeks. But underneath, most of us want to find out something new or something new about something old. V . V
IS READING UNUSUAL?
"What did you do last night, Sam?" "Oh, I played some gin and thea watched TV and then went to bed." This is the standard; it's accepted behavior; it's "normal." But the answer.
be. It's quite proper tb read. It's even' Socially acceptable. And it's mentally and spiritually rewarding. It's - not nearly so hard on your eyes as TV-rand the scripts are better! >.
Once upon a. time in all the large and sn)all Jewish communities of
- Europ^' everybody .read, the peddler, the beggarj the shoemaker, the rabbi, the merchant^ everybody. Everybody
- owned some books and on#ie whole they had more books than the lonely shelf of bestsellers overwhelmed by • glass and china knick-knacks found in . most homes tpday. Those books were not easy reading. They Were concerned with. Jewish lore, law* and religion. There were no'novels, no books on science; & few biographies, very little not of a sectarian nature. Yet, Jews read and re-read the books they, owned, finding in them an-ever-fresh source of joy and satisfaction. •'
Circulation figures of public libraries show that Jews still read more than non-Jews, but they read less than their grandfatfiers. I ami told there are more bookstores per acre in Tel Aviv than there are bars in New York Gity. The Israelis, closer to their European traditions than American Jews, but certainly not Ipss harassed, are actually book-hungry. In America, out of five naillion Jews the appalling small number of,ten thousand are members of the Jewish Publication Society. The Israiblis aren't as coihfortable as we are—and not as .intellectually <;.iazy. The egghead is a person of, stature there; people look oh^the man of culture as their model and theii" hope. We talk a good deal aboiit the resurgence in Jewish life which may come from that new nation^ A love of books, would be one of its most valuable exports toAmerica*.
But, I come baclc to my original/ statement: reading.is fun. It's more idiportant that just fun, too. One thing I have learned about my Jewish heritage from reading about it is that, it's a heritage to be proud of. J don't know, any way for a Jew to cease being -a., holloy/, borii-Jew, ashamed, frights ened and uneasy, and become a Jew by convictiqn, proud and secure, ex- . cept by learning what it means to be a Jew. That meaias reading about it Who wouldn't enjoy that feeling of pride? I've found it through books.
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have confronted the State of
. Israel h^ the last ten years. Jn 1948 the school population of Israel numbereti some 100,00D. Today there are over 500,000 school children ^d students, whose families have come from 60 different countries, who use
; moifc than 70 languiages arid who have ways of life arid, thotight as varied as their tongues. •
The measures take^n to establish the educational system of this country have been the subject of a study pubr lished by UNEiSCO under the title of
• "Education in Israel" in a recent number of "Ediication Abstracts". The Study which has been written Ipy Mr. M. Avidor, Director-General of the Ministry of Education of Israel,, is accompanied by an extensive bibliography compiled by Mr. Joseph Bent-wich, lecturer on Education lat the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
Reviewing*^'ten years' effort",in the field of education, Mr. Avidor points. but that the salient factor in education
^in Israel isUhat "Uie school population has increased /iye-foid during this period, although the general population has barely tripled itself. This brought in its train serious problems of finding both buildings aind materials. However although at the beginning, the situation was difficult, in the last two or three years is has improved considerably, each new. ■; vfllage or community having a school bf its o>wn, even if only a modest one."
Another l.,acute problem was the shortage of teachers whose numbfers increased from 5,000 in 1948 to 20,000 in 1958; ' ;
COMPULSORY TEACiaiNG ■
. .:.JG>uring,,this,period;tw were; passed affecting education. The first, in 1949, made school attendance compulsory foi''all children lietween the,'ages of 5 and 14. The second, in , f953, put:most schools under .State control and regularised the system of education in all schools. The period of compulsory education starts' with a year in kindergarten and moves through the elementary schools.
. Yoiing Israelis then have a choice of three types of secondary education: secondary academic schools under ■ the control, bf. the Ministry of Education and Culture; secondary agricul-.tural schools under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture or secondary trade schools supervised by the Ministry bf taboiir.
Students cbntinuing their studies can later proceed to one of Wee fine universities: the Hebrew University in Jerusaleni which at the present time has six faculties—arts, sciences, inedi-cihe, la\V,, agriculture 'and . social
of Science at Rehovot which engages in pure, aiid in some cases, applied research in the exact sciences, v v
YOUNG i^iRABS
Special schools have .^en established for .ybupg Arabs living in Israel,' mainly in ^6 'fegibn of'Nazareth where 85 percent of the Arab population of the coimtry i& concentrated. In these schools the Arab ^dren; Moslem arid Christian alike, arettau^t in Arabic^ Hebrew and English 5eing regarded as second languages. The school attendance of the ^oys is very satisfactory, being over 90 percent,, but only 50 percent of girls between the ages of 6 and 14 attend. JEven this figure marks an improvement on the pieriod prior to the creatioin of the State bf Israel.
' The-jnbst interesting part pfvMr. Avidor's report, however, deals with the a^^nilation of the immigrahte. Coming from 60 countries, they speak more than 70 di^erent languages and dialects and there was' a danger at one -time that the Hebrew language would be submerged under the influx bf new^ arrjvals^some 7bo,000 in four years. ./That this did not happen", writes Mr. Avidor, "was due to two factors —the multiplicity bf languages iwhich the unmigran^ • brought with them
which forced them to use one, and the rapid absorption of children into schools. In each school the children arrived speaking a dozen or more . languages which made them turn quickly to a common langua|e—Hebrew—in order to ONnmunicate with •each other.** ADULT EDIJCATION
For the Israeli authorities, language is an essential factor .in the integra.; tion process, and the first objective of theadult education^ program, which is highly developed all over the country, is to teach Hebrew to the new arrivals. The (jovermndnt, local authorities, labour^ organisation's arid various voluntary bodies conduct a number of couirses for adults—most outstand-, ing of which are five—or six-month intensive .co^irses in Hebrew held in the so-called "Ulpanim". ^ .
Though Hebrew constitutes a oomr .mon denominator of langiiage,, tfaie problem still remains to'find a com-, mon denominator for culture for such a heterogeneous population in. such, a restricted area, for, if certain immigrants came from extreniely advanced countries, others, frpm the point of view of customs and techniques, have not passed beybi^ the stage of tlie Middle Ages.
So adult education aims at giving a basic education to newcomers who have never been to school and at the 'same..time providing general training to pebple over 16 who seek additional knowledge and skills. Courses have been organised^ to this and .all over '(Continued on poge
BEAUTY OUEEN ON HER HOME CAMPUS
Miriam Hodlar, Miss Israel for 1958, who represented her country in the international Miss Universe beauty contest, stops to chat ,wit|i two fellow students on the campus ot Hebrew University where she is enrolled in the Low School. The 21-year old coed beauty oppeored on o nuniber of U.S^ television shows during lier recent visit to the United Stotes.
Make a date for Ne^
November 15 to hear. . .
JON SILO
Characfi-er Comedian *: Jewish humorist Star of Musical Comedy '
ot thei,
BETH iSRAEL AUDITORIUM Saturday, November 15, 8:30 p.m.
f
Admission—-Silver Collection
Cdhgr^otion Beth Israel is in charge of orraagemeats for the first event in the 1958-59 Personality Series
Other Personalities Jn this series will be
Congre^mcui JAMES ROOSEVELT-^DR^ BERNARD CHERRICK of Hebrew U—FELIX FIBICH, folk doncer
—PR. JUDAH J. SHAPIRO, notional Hillel Director
Arrangements for this series by Canadian Jewish Congress in cooperation with Community Council, B'noi B'rith, Zionist Orgonizotion, 'Schora Tzedeck and Beth Israel.